Electric Company Theatre

Did his singular focus blind him to the big picture?

BY LYNN MITGES

THE PROVINCE, APRIL 1, 2009

Eadweard Muybridge led a life in pure technicolour -- a far cry from the high-speed black-and-white photographic images he painstakingly devised to depict motion.

Although Muybridge was a gifted and revolutionary photographer who is credited with creating the precursor to cinema, his life didn't mirror the neat and orderly film frames of his work.

"What a complex man," says Kim Collier, who directs the Kevin Kerr play, . "When you read everything, it's not like you can get a final answer on Muybridge." Collier directed a previous version of the play, which has since been reworked with Kerr so that it has 40-per-cent new material for the 12-member cast.

"Muybridge seems to have a powerful, singular focus that he applies to his personal life, to his work life -- and that passion and that obsession that drives him can lead him to beautiful places but also to very tragic places," says Collier.

The play targets Muybridge's photography of both animal and human locomotion. From there, Collier says the play dips into Muybridge's past. "We see Muybridge struggling with haunting memories while he's doing his work."

Specifically, Muybridge discovered his wife was having an affair and sought out her lover. He shot and killed the man and was tried for murder, but acquitted on grounds of justifiable homicide.

This co-production, with the Vancouver Playhouse and Electric Company Theatre, uses several visual and artistic disciplines to portray the enigmatic character, including digital lighting technology by Robert Gardiner, choreography by Crystal Pite and electronic compositions by Patrick Pennefather. The effect has been described as seductive.

"Transitions are everything," says Collier. "This was really important in the direction of this piece because there are so many scenes and they're episodic and they're short -- it's almost got a filmic sense."

Collier explains that the delivery doesn't allow for leading in and out of scenes, and blackouts are just about impossible.

"I almost never use a blackout -- if I use one between the scenes, then you lose the story and the momentum," she says. "That's really fun trying to figure out how to make those transitions work."

The evocative character study explores the mystery of Muybridge and also offers some clues.

"We come to understand more fully the way he is and we get ideas about survival, and what it means to go on once you know everything is gone."

What also arises from this profile of Muybridge is an unquestionable narrative that accompanies his work on movement.

"What was subliminally or subconsciously going on as he was gathering that body of work? Is that any reflection on his need to control the world around him, and control himself so he didn't become the animal again?" Collier asks.

"As you track through the play, you come to understand," she says. "You get to find out."

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